Extreme Heat Wave in Quebec May Have Killed 70

Children play in the water fountains at the Place des Arts on a hot day in Montreal, July 3, 2018. EVA HAMBACH / AFP / Getty Images

The death toll in Quebec's heat wave last week may have reached as many as 70, officials said Tuesday, as temperatures exceeded 100 degrees F.

Thirty-four of those deaths were in Montreal, where temperatures soared 20 degrees above normal and CBC reports that the morgue became so overcrowded it had to partner with a local funeral home for extra storage.

Officials say most of the deaths were women and men over the age of 50 living alone in apartments with no air conditioning, and over 60 percent had an underlying medical condition. The increasing frequency and intensity of heat waves is among the most obvious and well-documented effects of climate change.

Bouts of extreme heat are expected to become more frequent, notes a 2018 report from Canada's federal and provincial auditors general, with their evaluation concluding that governments had under-delivered on commitments to deal with climate change.

The report states that "by 2100, the number of days above 30 degrees Celsius in Canadian cities is expected to double and a one-in-20-year hottest day may become a one-in-two-year event."

Sixteen-year-old climate action leader Greta Thunberg stood alongside European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker Thursday in Brussels as he indicated—after weeks of climate strikes around the world inspired by the Swedish teenager—that the European Union has heard the demands of young people and pledged more than $1 trillion over the next seven years to address the crisis of a rapidly heating planet.

In the financial period beginning in 2021, Juncker said, the EU will devote a quarter of its budget to solving the crisis.

A new study reveals the health risks posed by the making, use and disposal of plastics. Jeffrey Phelps / Getty Images

With eight million metric tons of plastic entering the world's oceans every year, there is growing concern about the proliferation of plastics in the environment. Despite this, surprisingly little is known about the full impact of plastic pollution on human health.

But a first-of-its-kind study released Tuesday sets out to change that. The study, Plastic & Health: The Hidden Costs of a Plastic Planet, is especially groundbreaking because it looks at the health impacts of every stage in the life cycle of plastics, from the extraction of the fossil fuels that make them to their permanence in the environment. While previous studies have focused on particular products, manufacturing processes or moments in the creation and use of plastics, this study shows that plastics pose serious health risks at every stage in their production, use and disposal.